Juan Miguel Hernández León PHOTO: Manuel Castells

"Sometimes architects are blamed for having contributed to the real estate bubble in Spain, but they have only been an instrument of economic and financial mechanisms". This was the opinion of Juan Miguel Hernández León, president of the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid, who gave a course at the Master's Degree in design Arquitectónico at the University of Navarra and a lecture at School of Architecture.

In this sense, he vindicated the contribution of architects in recent years, which in his opinion "has meant a very important transformation for the country. In general, they have created a high quality offer".

Their proposals have been very different," he said, "but in most of them there is a feeling of adequacy between ends and means, which the classics called 'architectural decorum'. Luxuria, as a negative element of any internship, has been left out of the most significant aspects of Spanish architecture. Social responsibility has marked the path."

Crisis and architectural renovation
On the other hand, he stressed that throughout history, "the most significant proposals for architectural renovation" have occurred in times of economic crisis. "That time of waiting, if it does not turn into fossilization, is positive: it allows us to gain momentum to move forward on the path."

Regarding Spanish architects who travel abroad in search of new opportunities, especially the younger ones, he denied that this is a negative thing:"The possibility of working in the international arena opens up for them because of their good training andability to generate answers quickly, intuitively and creatively. Like many other qualified professionals, we architects have fought for a common, global space. This cannot be compared to the emigration of the 1950s or 1960s; at that time, the strength of work was mobilized, and now it is professional capacity".